Three: Waiting

We spent the rest of the evening deciding on our course of action. With our plans settled, eventually we all laid down to get some sleep. But for me, it just wasn't happening.

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and twirling the delicate chain of my necklace between my fingers. The midnight blue stone with flecks of silver caught the moonlight from the window and danced as it moved.

Thain.

What was he doing? Was he safe? Was Eberon safe?

I sighed and rolled over, trying again to get back to sleep. But next to me, the shaking started.

I sat up and watched Schula as another of her terrors began. She squirmed, a pained frown painted on her face. I held her hand gently for a while until it passed. She took in a sharp breath and opened her eyes as they began to water.

She had a few of these since we got her out of Icehold, but I hadn't been able to wake her from one yet. I just had to comfort her until it passed.

"Shh, it's okay," I soothed. "It was just a dream."

She sat up, wiping her eyes with a sigh as I gave her a hug.

I looked over to Nassir, hoping we didn't wake him.

Schula and I were sharing the bed in our rented space. We had tried to give it to Nassir, but I guess after sleeping on a stone floor for a thousand years it does something to you. He politely but firmly refused the bed, and instead slept on a blanket on the floor.

Schula looked over at him too. He was still sleeping, but if we were going to talk that wouldn't last long. Puko was perched on the headboard and making soft wheezing sounds. Schula pointed to the window and I nodded.

I slid out of the bed and padded barefoot to the window, Schula close behind. I sat on the sill and swung my legs outward, then I reached up and grabbed the little tile overhang over the window and pulled myself up.

We crawled up the slope of the domed building until we were at the top and could sit without the feeling of sliding off. I was glad to not have the cloak on, not that anyone could see me all the way up here at night. It was refreshing to feel the rooftop breeze on my skin. I took a deep breath of the night air, closing my eyes and letting it settle into me. Schula did the same.

"You alright?" I asked.

She shrugged. "As good as I ever am. Thanks for staying with me."

"Of course, I was already awake anyway."

"Was it another nightmare?" Schula asked.

We had both had our fair share of them since Icehold, mine were just nothing nearly as bad as Schula's were.

"Mmm," I hummed. "No nightmare, just my own thoughts. I think I'm just homesick, which is odd since I don't particularly have a home."

She nodded and turned her eyes out over the round rooftops of Sulls. The sandy clay looked like dunes in the light of the stars, blending in with the hills outside the city walls.

"Sometimes," she said. "Home isn't a place. Sometimes it's a feeling. Or a person."

I blushed lightly, thankful for the cover of darkness that hid it.

"You were thinking about him again, weren't you?" Schula asked with a slight smile.

I sighed through my nose and pulled the necklace from under my shirt again.

"I miss him too. Both of them." She reached over and entwined her fingers with mine.

"It's funny," I said. "I started out so scared of Thain, but no matter how much he frightened me I couldn't stop being curious about him too. And now, just after I've come to realize what he's starting to mean to me, we're worlds apart again."

Schula laid back with a grunt, stretching out on the roof and gazing up at the stars. "Try not to focus on it I guess. Let's worry about Kinza and his riddles. The sooner we find the witches, the closer we are to going back. Hopefully with answers about the barriers too."

"I know," I said. "I'm trying not to think about it."

We sat in companionable silence for a while longer before Schula sat back up. She yawned, stretched, and turned her sleepy eyes to me. "You ready for tomorrow? Or today I suppose, since it's so late that it's early now?"

"Yeah, I feel good about the gambling house," I said. "You sure you will be okay on your own at the entertainment theater?"

"I'll be fine," Schula said. "Nassir is who I'm worried about."

I smiled, thinking about him. He was already like family to both of us. An odd sensation for two people who had very little family experience to begin with, but it felt right all the same.

"He did great at the eating house last night," I waived my hand through the air, dismissing her worries. "Just like a human. He'll be fine."

"So it's just me you're worried about?" she tossed me a pouting face. "I didn't think I was that bad."

I threw my head back and laughed, a huge grin cracking across her face.

"I'm not worried about what you'll say," I said. "I'm worried about what you'll eat."

"Hey!" Schula said. "That's why I didn't pick one of the eating houses."

I chuckled as she made a few ice crystals and flicked them at me. They melted quickly, but not so quickly that I couldn't flick a few droplets of cold water back at her first.

I yawned and patted the necklace that hung all the way down over my stomach under my shirt, smiling absently at the memory of Thain giving it to me. "I think I can go back to sleep now if you can."

Schula nodded and began crawling down the clay to the window. I followed her and we swung back inside and to the bed.

We curled up comfortably next to each other and I watched her until she fell asleep. Our time in Icehold had taken a toll on both of us, but Schula much more than me. I can't imagine what memories her recent capture there brought back to her. Even as close as we had become as a triquetram, there were still things I just didn't know about her childhood. She wasn't ready to talk yet, and that was okay. I'd be here when she was ready.

But she was healing. Slowly but surely healing. We both were, and now as I was confident she was able to sleep again, I closed my own eyes.

I sighed as I snuggled down into the straw mattress. It wasn't nearly as soft as the bedding in Thanantholl, but it did remind me of home. My human home.

Days spent running through the trees, catching rabbits, lazy days fishing. Cold days when we were snowed inside with little to do but tell stories as Bryn carved wood.

I smiled, remembering Bryn in our happier days.

Happier days. That's what we had ahead. I'd make sure of it.

I smiled, and I drifted off to sleep.

~

I resisted the urge to grumble at the heat as I drew my cloak's hood down low. When we decided to split up for a better chance at finding the wordweaver, my gut immediately told me to pick the gambling house. Now, standing in front of it, I wasn't so sure.

It was a seedy place on a barren street in the back alleys of a warehouse district. How anyone was supposed to get patrons to trek all the way out here I had no idea. Surely Kinza had places to go that would pay better than this one.

I reached into my pocket, touching the brass coin. Since the note was directed at me, Schula and Nassir insisted I take the coin. I didn't argue, but I did spend a good portion of the day looking it over for more clues. All I did was waste my day and give myself a headache.

I sighed, looking up to the roof where Puko had chosen to stay while I investigated. He preened his feathers, pausing to look at me with his one good eye.

"Alright, alright," I mumbled as I began walking inside. "I'm going."

As I stepped into the shaded relief of the clay archway, I glanced up out of curiosity. There it was, another witch mark. The same shape of the mark of protection that we had seen last night. My mouth formed a thin line as I went on inside.

The lanterns were kept low, not adding too much heat and not letting cards, dice, and other games of chance be too easily observed. The first thing I noticed after the lighting was the old-style Sulls seating of floor cushions and short tables instead of proper chairs. I had thought only the Sultana's palace and other stuffy noble houses around here kept the old style decor, but I guess I was wrong.

Men and a few women relaxed against plush cushions, enjoying their favorite games and ordering refreshing drinks. The sun wouldn't be down for another couple hours, but I had decided to come early enough that I definitely wouldn't miss the wordweaver if he decided to come here today.

My eyes scanned the room, looking for a seat with the best view of the door. I settled on a small, empty table with no games going on against a wall. Walking over to it, I made a move to sit, when something caught my eye. Carved lightly into the design of the table, was a mouth with a key in it. It was at the table next to the one I was going to sit in, but I turned straight for the one with the symbol. This had to mean something, it wasn't a coincidence. I leaned into the cushions, which were surprisingly comfortable, and ordered a drink from a passing server.

I ran my fingertips along the carved table surface. I was surprised to have spotted the symbol at all among the rest of the intricate tabletop, but I did spend all afternoon staring at the image and I could probably spot it anywhere at this point. I flicked my eyes around the room and judged the other patrons. Who else here was involved with this symbol? Any of them? All of them?

I didn't get any attention as I stared. I would have thought having my hood up would earn me suspicious glances all evening. Instead, it only helped me blend in with a certain portion of the gambling house's clientele. There were more than a few suspicious people playing the room. Partaking in games, drinks, and if they were willing, the other patrons. The kind of human that would have scared me to death before. Now I just sighed into my glass as I watched them.

I raised an eyebrow as a man slid into one of the empty seats at my table. He had a broad smile, narrow eyes that danced with secrets, and he wore the head wrappings of a plainsman, though I wondered if he really was one. He certainly didn't have the brutish build that most of them did, but he did have the shaven face.

"Good evening, you look lonely. Can I interest you in a game of chance?" he purred.

I took a long drink from my glass, trying to decide what to say. The humans were waning on me, and I had no patience for this one's nonsense. Quite a transformation from being scared of them all as I grew up. Now that I had lived with the fae, I knew what real fear could be, and the humans were not it.

"No," I said, deciding to keep it short and simple. I let my eyes wander to the door, hoping to catch the wordweaver coming in and dismissing the man before me.

Unfortunately, he was persistent.

"Then maybe a refreshment would be better?" He scooted closer to me on his cushion, nearly taking the seat immediately to my left. "That drink can't be all you're having for dinner, would you care to join me for a meal?"

I looked him over once again, my brows furrowed. "No. I'm waiting for someone, please leave."

"Waiting, are you?" he asked. "I'm waiting too, I'd be happy to wait with you until they arrive."

"Leave," I said again, with a slight growl in my throat.

He simply smiled and flagged down a server, placing an order for an amount of food to rival King Baeleon's feast table. Despite my protests, the server nodded and took the man's order to the kitchens.

"A lovely night, not quite so hot today. By the way, my name is Jaf." His incessant smiling was starting to make my skin crawl. I let him talk at me while I watched the door. He prattled on about any number of things I didn't care about. Games. Food. Famous singers. His favorite merchants. The list went on with small talk that meant nothing to me, and then the food arrived.

"Ah! Magnificent." Jaf clapped his hands together and watched as it took three servers to bring out the plates. There were cookpots, skewers of roasted meats, plates of vegetables in sweet glazes, and three kinds of rice dishes.

As annoying as it had been to have Jaf next to me, it was now ten times worse to smell the amazing food in front of us as well. There was no way I was going to let myself eat this strange man's food, it was likely some kind of trick.

My stomach growled, and I hoped it wasn't loud enough to be heard over the chatter in the room. I sighed and turned my eyes back to the doorway, steeling my resolve.

"Hey! You had better help me eat this," he said. "You look all skin and bones anyway, you should try the orange peppers. Here, let me help."

He took the liberty of scooping several things onto a plate in front of me as I protested.

"Stop it," I grumbled. "I didn't agree to any of this. Feed it to the person you're waiting for and leave me alone."

I stood from the cushion, annoyed that I was the one who would have to move tables when I was the one who was here first. Especially since this table had the symbol on it.

Standing, I gritted my teeth to see there were no more empty tables and I would have to join a game somewhere to get a seat. I clenched my jaw, trying to count in my head how many dwindling coins I had left to spend before we ran out of human currency.

"I'd sit back down if I were you." The man's voice was light with song, but his words were firm and commanding. "Or else you might miss the show."

My eyes snapped down to him, and I opened my mouth to say something, but then I heard a familiar voice from the center of the room.

"Good evening, fine folks of Sulls. I am the wordweaver, and I'm here to tell you a tale."

I tensed at Kinza's voice.

"There was a reason you wanted this table, right?" the man next to me asked. Still sitting down, still smiling. "Unless you're trying to draw attention to both of us, sit down."

I snapped my mouth shut and sat immediately.

Whatever plot I was meant to fall into, it appeared to start here. I was just along for the ride.